Author
Topic: Buying a new bike should be fun! (Read 143 times)

Wanted a new KTM790 and was planning to buy from Wayne Mounter Pontypridd as he had the Orange colour in stock, but having bought my last bike from MandP I wanted to give them the chance of the sale so called down to speak with their sales guy Chris. He offered to match the deal and told me Orange bikes were being delivered in 2 days. Deposit placed, accessories ordered, and all looked good. To cut a long story short, almost 3 weeks later and still no bike! Every excuse being used including KTM telling them the wrong delivery dates, the wrong colours being delivered, orders not being tracked and KTM dont know where they are etc... I've had enough by this time but still give them a chance. Told them "I'll take the black one you have in stock but I want it ready by the weekend". This gave them a full week to sort and the sales guy said no problem. I call them several times during the week to check progress and was told all is good for weekend pick up. I then get a phone call on Friday to say the workshop is running behind and they cant get the bike ready for Saturday! "Dont worry though", said the sales guy. Orange bikes are being delivered Monday and I give you my word that the bike will be ready for you to collect next Saturday. I visit the shop the next day as Im really not happy with them and decide I want my money back. The sales guy tries hard to stop me cancelling the order and again promises the bike will be ready Saturday. At this point the sales manager comes to talk to me, apologizes for the delay, and again gives me every excuse. He then says "the thing is we cant get the bike ready for collection next Saturday either because its our open day" That was the final straw for me and I got my deposit back and told them I'll go elsewhere.

I immediately rang Wayne Mounter who took a deposit from me over the phone and i collected the bike within 48 hours.

Insuring the bike was also a nightmare. Current insurers (Bennetts) refused to quote me and wouldnt say why. Searched the bikeinsurer.com and got 3 decent quotes, but when I attempted to purchase via the website a message would pop up at the last stage saying "unable to complete please call customer services". This was the same for all 3 quotes from different companies and a phone call to each resulted in them refusing to honor the on line quote and claiming to be unable to offer ANY quote on the bike! I eventually found a company that would insure me (Bikesure) but some of the questions I had to answer seemed completely irrelevant. Examples are - "Are you a member of any biking organisation or a registered member of any online BIKING FORUMS". Biking forums! WTF is that all about! Ive insured brand new Fireblades easier and for less than I'm now paying for a 790.

I change my bikes every 12 months and have never had so much hassle and stress from what should be a pleasant experience.